


head rush

by narcissablaxk



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, OT3, Open Marriage, Open Marriage Negotiations, Pranks, Teasing, lawrusso
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 01:47:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29992011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narcissablaxk/pseuds/narcissablaxk
Summary: And then one day, when he let her coax him into going to one of those hipster bars where they called getting shitfaced drunk an “experience,” she leveled him with a scrutinizing look and said “So you have a thing for my husband, right?”He choked on his whatever-the-fuck local IPA beer he’d been given by the man child in a ponytail at the bar. “Um…no?”“Oh, sweetie, it wasn’t a question,” she said breezily, emptying her martini and catching the olive between her teeth.Or Amanda helps Johnny woo Daniel as only she can - by fucking with him first.
Relationships: Amanda LaRusso/Daniel LaRusso, Amanda LaRusso/Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence, Amanda LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence, Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 11
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I promise that Amanda and Johnny love him, but both of their love languages is "fucking with" people.

Johnny knew that LaRusso’s wife was dangerous. She was too honest, too open, too _something_ , and when she directed her huge blue eyes at him, it made him nervous. He chalked that up to feeling like he was going to be scolded – with all the shit talking he did about and around LaRusso, his wife ripping him a new asshole was probably deserved. 

Except she was _funny_ , and a little mean in her humor, and that was his favorite kind, so even though he always felt like he was working with a flame a little too close to his bare skin, he liked hanging out with her. 

They went out for drinks sometimes, old dive bars where men would stare at her for too long and Johnny would glare at them to make them stop. She would drink cheap, shitty beer with him and snort-laugh into the bottle at his jokes. It was fun, having a friend. 

And then one day, when he let her coax him into going to one of those hipster bars where they called getting shitfaced drunk an “experience,” she leveled him with a scrutinizing look and said “So you have a thing for my husband, right?” 

He choked on his whatever-the-fuck local IPA beer he’d been given by the man child in a ponytail at the bar. “Um…no?” 

“Oh, sweetie, it wasn’t a question,” she said breezily, emptying her martini and catching the olive between her teeth. 

He raised his eyebrows at her, but didn’t contradict her a second time. 

“Come on,” she said, a laugh at the edge of her tone. “The whole three-decade long rivalry thing is just…not realistic. You two were little assholes when you were teenagers, and you’re kind of still assholes, but you wouldn’t be so caught up in each other unless there was a little something other than rivalry there.” 

“That’s…”

“Accurate, I know,” she said. She took another sip of her martini. Johnny watched her closely, marking her movements like he would an opponent before a fight. Was this about to turn into a don’t-come-near-my-man talk? Because if he were honest, if this conversation was going in that direction, the least she could have done was do it at a bar that served good beer. 

She seemed to sense his discomfort. “Oh, honey, I’m not angry at you,” she said nonchalantly, polishing off her martini and motioning for another one with a smooth twist of her wrist. “Just trying to get you to admit that I’m right.” 

He didn’t automatically say that she was right, after all, even though something at the back of his throat told him that he should. Instead, he took another long pull of his now lukewarm beer and waited for her to speak again. 

“Come on,” she needled, poking him in the leg under the table with the toe of her shoe. “You can’t tell me you’ve never thought about it. Pretty boy like Daniel,” she dropped her voice so it was practically a whisper, and Johnny leaned forward over the table to hear her better. “Big doe eyes blinking up at you, pretty, girly lips, fiery Italian temper, that accent –”

He cleared his throat to shake the image she was rapidly forming in his head. “Okay, alright, fine,” he hissed. “Just stop talking about it.” 

Amanda grinned gleefully, falling back into the back of the booth, clapping her hands together. “Ahhhh I knew it!” she said, and the bartender set the new martini in front of her, a punctuation at the end of her triumph. Johnny rolled his eyes. “Okay, so what is it? Some weird curiosity, true love -?”

“Oh _come on_ –”

“Humor me, Johnny,” she said, and she passed her hand over the expanse of the table to his, her long fingernails gently scratching his palm. “I’m going to ask you questions, and I want you to just answer yes or no. Can you do that?” 

Johnny tightened his hand around his beer and didn’t answer. Amanda smiled at him, blinking innocently. 

“Yes or no, Johnny?” 

“Fine,” he grumbled. 

“Okay, so…let’s start from the top. You like him, correct?” Johnny nodded curtly. “But more than a friend?” 

He stayed silent for a long time, rolling his eyes when Amanda’s foot crept up his leg to push insistently on his knee. “Fine, yes.” 

“Do you want to kiss him?” 

“Come on, Manda –”

“No, _you_ come on –”

He could feel that his face was bright red, and not only that, that she noticed. “Yes, okay? You happy?” 

“Buzzing, babe,” she said. “Do you want to sleep with him?”

“Jesus Christ –” he downed the rest of his beer and looked up at the ceiling. “Do we have to do this?” 

Amanda raised her eyebrows from the other side of the table. “I’m going to take that as a yes.” She gave him time to contradict her – but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have guy friends with whom he regularly discussed his sex life with, and time had made the conversation awkward. 

She reached over the table for his hand again and gave him a soothing rub of her thumb over his knuckles. “So the physical is not a problem. Now for the tough question –”

“All of that shit wasn’t tough?” he asked, exasperated. He looked over at the bar, caught the gaze of the bartender with a ponytail, and motioned for another. “And a shot of whiskey,” he called out. 

“Johnny, you’re an action guy. You and Daniel are constantly fighting, of course you two want to fuck –”

“God, stop saying –”

“But what I want to know is if you want to date him?” She pulled her hand back to lean her chin on it, blinking at him like she hadn’t just asked an impossible question. He furrowed his brows at her, as if that would make the question makes sense. 

Finally, he tapped his fingers on the table. “That’s a dumb question.” 

“Because he’s married?” 

He threw his hands out – the universal gesture for _ya think_? Amanda watched him do it with a smirk, and he felt, though he couldn’t say why, like he was playing directly into her hands. Like she had a plan for how this conversation was going to go, and he was following it to the letter. 

“Johnny, do you know what an open marriage is?” 

He rolled his eyes. “I’ve watched porn.” 

“They mention open marriages in porn?” 

“Manda, sometimes the story is the best part.” 

She covered her mouth to laugh and collected herself. “So you know what it entails?” 

He shrugged. “I mean…I’ve never looked into it –”

“Daniel can date anyone he wants,” she said, and whatever he was going to say simply emptied itself out of his ears. He gaped at her, and she allowed herself a moment of smug self-assuredness before she continued. “I know.” 

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re the best wife?” he asked, because seriously, he couldn’t name anyone who could come close. She waved him off and paused when the bartender came back with Johnny’s beer and shot. 

“He can date anyone he wants, which means I can also date anyone I want,” she said patiently, as if explaining it in detail was super important to Johnny, who was still caught on the first _Daniel can date anyone he wants_. “Sometimes that’s just a physical relationship, sometimes it isn’t. But we both have veto rights. So…if I think you won’t behave, I could veto you.” 

Johnny paused, his shot halfway to his mouth, caught up in a rush of wanting to prove himself. He chalked that up to competitiveness and pushed it down. This whole conversation was thrilling, but Amanda was forgetting one major detail. 

“LaRusso doesn’t want to date me,” he said finally, the whiskey burning on the way down. 

Amanda smirked at him from across the table, the twist of her mouth flirty. She raised one shoulder in a shallow shrug. 

He felt his mouth drop open and snapped it shut. “Does he?” 

She shrugged again. “I can help with that.” 

He wrinkled his brow. “What does that mean?” 

She reached over the table to take his hand again. “What that means, Johnny, is that you’re going to have to listen to me, and do as I say. Think you can do that?” 

He didn’t bother to answer. She lifted his beer to his lips and tipped it into his mouth. 

“Good boy,” she said. 

***

Daniel often found himself at a loss when it came to his wife. Naturally, he thought that was a strength – he found one of the only women in the world who could literally shut him up with a sentence. Except sometimes, it wasn’t a joke that left him wondering what the hell just happened. Most recently, it was her friendship with Johnny Lawrence. 

Or, more accurately, her _obsession_ with Johnny. 

“You’re going out _again_?” he asked, exasperated, when she stood up from the dinner table, the kids excused and back in their rooms, and gave him a kiss goodbye. He slipped an arm around her waist. “With Johnny?” 

She smirked down at him, daring him to say something else. He stubbornly kept his mouth shut. After a moment, she nudged his chair back to sit on his lap. “I’m taking him shopping. Do you want to come?” 

“What?” he asked, affronted. “Of course not.” 

She shrugged and stood up. “He’s fun, Daniel. You should try having fun sometime.” 

He rolled his eyes, recognizing a good-natured ribbing when it was presented to him. “Shopping with Johnny doesn’t sound fun.” 

“You’d be surprised,” she said, and something in her tone brought him up short. He turned in his seat and caught her checking her reflection in the mirror by the front door. 

“Honey,” he called, and she turned toward him, pulling her purse up her shoulder. “Do we need to…have a discussion about Johnny Lawrence?” 

She blinked at him, and he caught the ghost of a smile on her face before she turned away. “Maybe. See you later!” 

***

Daniel wasn’t proud of it, but he waited up for Amanda to get home from shopping with Johnny. He’d considered, for a wild, reckless moment, following her and seeing what the hell was going on himself – but then he realized that if he caught Johnny with his wife, he might actually hit him with his car. 

She came home late – far later than a mall was even open, and he was sitting on the couch, sales reports open and untouched on the coffee table. 

She spotted him on an ill-planned pirouette to bump the front door closed. “Oops,” she giggled, almost knocking herself over taking her shoes off. “I thought you’d be in bed by now.” 

“You’re drunk,” he said, standing up to hold onto her arm so she could take off the other shoe. “Is…is Johnny drunk too?” 

“What?” she asked, and her purse slipped off her shoulder, and he could smell Johnny’s shitty aftershave on her, cheap and woodsy. It probably had a stupid name with too many overly-masculine words. “I’m not sure. I Ubered.” 

He followed her into the bedroom, where she deftly unzipped her own dress and stepped out of it, kicking it away toward the hamper. He followed it and put it in, leaning against the wall to survey her, in her bra and panties, looking for marks, hating himself for doing it. 

“I didn’t sleep with him,” she muttered, rummaging in her vanity for a cotton swab to take her makeup off. “If that’s what you’re asking without asking.” 

“I didn’t say –”

“If you glare at me any harder, you’ll give yourself an aneurism,” she said placidly, wiping at her mascara. “You had your shot –”

“You asking me if I want to fuck Johnny Lawrence right before I went to the All Valley tournament is not –”

“You said no,” she said, lifting one shoulder. “It was a valid question, with all the looking and brooding you do. Let’s not forget that fated sparring session that never happened.” She chuckled until she hiccupped, hiding it daintily behind her hand. “Now that’s a porn I would’ve paid to watch.” 

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on not laughing, because nothing egged Amanda on when she got like this more than a willing audience. “Just because I said no doesn’t mean –”

“Doesn’t give me a free pass?” she asked. “I never said I wanted to fuck him.” 

He stalled out, at a loss, because, yeah, true, she didn’t say it. 

“But you do,” he said dryly, and she raised one eyebrow and didn’t answer. “Come on, Amanda, of all people –”

She turned away from her reflection to look at him, her gaze far too focused for a drunk woman. “Does it bother you?” she asked, dropping the swab on the counter and leaving it there. She stood up and reached for him, splaying her hand over his chest. 

He avoided her gaze, looking up to the ceiling before looking down to the floor. “It just…doesn’t make sense –”

She shrugged. “He’s funny, he’s sweet –”

 _“Sweet?!”_ it came out like a shrill protestation, and Amanda took a step back at the sound. “News to me –”

“You’re doing it again,” she said, stepping away from him and into the bedroom, crawling onto their bed and kicking the pillows onto the floor. “Fixating.” 

“I could veto him,” Daniel pointed out. “If he’s...if you’re…” 

She raised her eyebrows and slid into the sheets, her hair piled up on the pillow behind her. “I wouldn’t veto him for you,” she said. 

And, well, Daniel didn’t know what to say to that. 

***

Johnny fidgeted in the front seat of his car. A few days ago, he had no problem following Amanda’s orders, had no issue going to the mall and letting her buy him clothes, including a suit that was now hanging in his closet, looking frighteningly out of place beside the rest of his clothes. She told him to follow her directions, so that’s what he was doing. 

Except this was going to be the first time he and Daniel would be teaching together, without Amanda as a buffer, since their chat at the bar. 

His phone vibrated in his cupholder, and he knew, without looking at it, that it would be Amanda. She was the only one who texted him – except for Miguel. 

“Did you wear it?” the text said. He rolled his eyes and glanced down at his sleeveless black gi. He didn’t understand why she’d told him to wear it – she hadn’t offered any reasoning. Perhaps she thought he would get it. 

Except he didn’t. 

He took a picture, purposely cutting his head off, of his torso, and sent it. 

She replied with three fire emojis, whatever that meant. 

The kids were already there when he walked in, warming up, so he ignored them and walked over to the little platform where Daniel always stood and took his spot beside him. Because they were already occupied, he was able to catch the way Daniel did a double-take when he walked in. 

He did what Amanda told him to do – he caught him looking and held his gaze, smirking when Daniel’s eyes met his and lingered before turning back to the kids. 

_Oh_ , so _that’s_ what he was doing. 

He didn’t need Amanda to tell him to lean into it. So he made sure to ask Daniel to assist him with a demonstration, dropping his hand to his shoulder when Daniel looked a little spooked. 

“I’ll be gentle,” he said, leaning in so no one else could hear. 

“Fine,” Daniel groused, but there was color high in his cheeks that he couldn’t hide. 

Johnny set him up and walked the kids through the move, an easy sweep and drop that Miguel, Hawk, and Sam all already knew. He went slow the first time, setting his foot behind Daniel’s and putting a firm hand on his chest. 

He didn’t shove, didn’t sweep, didn’t do anything but hold, his other hand catching Daniel around the waist when he leaned back too far and threatened to lose his balance. 

“Ready to do it up to speed?” he asked, and he could see Daniel’s chest rising and falling rapidly under his shirt. Daniel gave him a mute nod and Johnny set them up again, catching Daniel’s gaze before he lunged. 

The move was done in a second, and then Daniel was on the ground, his hair mussed and falling over his face, Johnny’s hand on his chest. 

Johnny stood and offered him his hand, remembering what Amanda told him the night before. 

_Don’t be too mean to him._

“Good work,” he said, directing the words out to the kids, who looked blankly back at him. When he looked over again, Daniel was still looking at him, eyes narrowed, like he was trying to figure him out and wasn’t succeeding. 

Good. 

***

“What are you doing with my wife?” Daniel didn’t mean to say the words out loud, but they’d been repeating themselves in his head all afternoon, so when Johnny came into the dojo and the kids were gone, there they were. His stupid gi was falling open, and he could see far more of his bare chest than he wanted on display when there were teenagers around. 

It put him on edge, the same way Johnny’s weighted gaze did when he caught him looking, and the careful way he made sure Daniel wasn’t hurt after his stupid demonstration. 

Johnny, to his credit, looked taken aback. “Right now?” 

“No, genius, I mean when you’re out all night and she comes back smelling like your shitty aftershave,” Daniel snapped, and now Johnny was _smiling_ , and he was about two seconds from getting that smile punched off his face. 

“Why do you know what my aftershave smells like?” he asked, taking a very careful step closer, which, as a rule, wasn’t a smart fighting move, and now Daniel was even more confused, because Johnny Lawrence was stupid about a lot of things, but he was a smart fighter. “Keeping tabs?” 

“It’s hard to forget,” he said, and based on the way Johnny’s smile turned into a smirk, the words didn’t sound nearly as insulting as he intended. 

Johnny lifted one shoulder. “Amanda’s cool,” he said. “Hot, too.” 

“Watch it –”

“Calm down, dude, we just get drinks and shoot the shit,” Johnny said, raising his hands. “Seriously, you’d think I’d fuck around with your wife behind your back?” 

Daniel blinked, feeling momentarily stymied. As often as Johnny Lawrence fucked with him, he definitely wasn’t the type to – well. 

“No, I guess not.” 

Johnny raised his eyebrows at him, his expression fond, and patted him on the shoulder. “Besides, you could always veto me.” 

Before Daniel could do anything beyond make a strangled noise at the back of his throat, he was gone, back out the sliding door to his car.


	2. Chapter 2

Amanda was cooking when he got home, in her tights and sports bra from spin class, the edges of her hair wet from sweat. She always did it this way – spin class, start dinner, shower, eat. He was comforted by the routine, pleased to see that even though everything else in his life was a complete, tangled mess, at least this hadn’t changed. 

She peeked at him over her shoulder when he came in, her eyeliner from work smudged at the edges. 

“Ooh, someone’s tense,” she remarked, turning back to the food, pushing it aimlessly around the pan. He watched her work, trying to do the opposite of what he did to Johnny. Blurting words at Amanda wouldn’t work – it never did. “What’s wrong?” she asked when he didn’t speak, and he felt momentarily gratified that she hadn’t managed to goad a response out of him. 

“Why does Johnny Lawrence know the word _veto_?” he asked, going for nonchalant. Still, the words were stiff, and Amanda finally turned completely around to look at him, her big blue eyes innocent. “Amanda –”

“We might have discussed it,” she said, offering the palms of her hands like a show of peace. “Communication is important –”

“No,” Daniel said firmly, turning away from her and going toward the hallway, where he could make a quick escape, away from any sort of argument or negotiation. “No, absolutely not. I’m vetoing him.” 

“Daniel,” she called after him, but he was moving up the stairs swiftly, away from her teasing voice, away from whatever was lingering in her eyes that he couldn’t put together. 

Was this some sort of weird penance for dating Ali in high school? Was Johnny really trying to seduce his wife to get him back thirty-five years later? It didn’t make sense, but then again, nothing Johnny ever did made any sense to him. He rubbed at his eyes, trying not to look at what he knew he’d find in the mirror – dark bags under his eyes, rubbed raw by his rough hands, signs of age that Amanda just didn’t have. 

He didn’t like the ugly feeling in his chest, and he certainly didn’t like that it felt an awful lot like jealousy. 

“Come on, honey,” Amanda had finally managed to follow him into the bedroom, still holding the spatula from the kitchen. “I don’t want you to be upset.” 

She looked, in contrast to her typical teasing, absolutely genuine, and Daniel felt himself calming at the sight of her sincerity. She set the spatula down on the dresser like she’d forgotten she was holding it and opened her arms for him to step into, sliding her hands underneath his jacket. 

“I need to take a shower,” she said softly, tilting her chin down to look at him more completely. “Do you want to join me?” 

He planned to say no, because he was still being haunted by Johnny Lawrence, by his stupid smirk and his open gi top and the way his wife giggled when she retold one of his jokes over breakfast, but Amanda was already slipping his jacket down his arms and down to the floor, and he never really said no. 

“You know,” she said when she was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair, “Johnny says some interesting things when he gets drunk.” 

“Jesus Christ, Amanda –” he muttered because they were in the shower of all goddamn places, and the last place he wanted her thinking about Johnny fucking Lawrence was while she was naked in the shower with her husband.

She pretended like she didn’t hear him. “Like how you two got shoved into some closet together at a high school graduation party –”

He went still, his eyes watching her closely. She grinned at him and reached for the conditioner, placidly pouring some into her hand and then working it into her hair, careful and methodical and not at all like whatever she was going to say was going to wreck Daniel’s carefully stitched together calm. 

“He says you didn’t do anything in there, but you know, Daniel, I know you,” she continued, blue eyes locked on his. “You’re an opportunist. I find it very hard to believe that you didn’t do anything.” 

“He was still a bully,” he muttered, pulling away when Amanda reached out to touch his bare chest, directing him to stand under the warm spray of the shower. 

She hummed her agreement. “But a hot bully,” she added, and Daniel chuckled, because really, what was the harm in agreeing with her? This was easier to stomach – reminiscing about decades ago and not about what was happening in the present. She stepped closer, invading his space, and he had water running into his eyes, but he could still see her silhouette, blurry but tantalizing in the steam of the shower. “You really didn’t do anything?” 

He shook his head, trying to ignore the way her voice shot through him, low and sexy. He was determined not to react – it would be easy for her to misinterpret any reaction he had to her while she was talking about Johnny Lawrence. He could hear the teasing now. 

Except she seemed determined to get a rise out of him, no matter what, because she turned him to shove him against the wall of the shower and said, “What would you have done, if you weren’t so scared?” 

When he grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her in for a kiss, he was pretty sure he saw triumph in her eyes. 

***

“I think you should ask him out,” Amanda said a day later, over mozzarella sticks. She hadn’t ordered a drink today, but instead was sipping some kind of blackberry iced tea that she kept pushing over to Johnny’s side of the table, directing the straw into his mouth. 

He raised his eyebrows at her, taking another sip of her drink. “I thought you were going to coach me? Make me over or some teenage bullshit.” 

Amanda smirked at him, curling her hand around the glass of tea and taking it back. “You think you need a makeover?” she asked, and Johnny rolled his eyes. 

“Oh ha ha,” he said dryly. “I just thought –”

“You thought we were going to tease him forever?” she asked coyly, tilting her head. “Johnny, baby, he will punch you in the face.” 

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Johnny shrugged, tossing the end of a mozzarella stick into his mouth. “Besides, I know that little twerp. If I ask if he wants to go steady, he’s gonna pop a blood vessel and drive off a cliff.” 

“He’s not –” Johnny raised his eyebrow at her disbelievingly. “Okay, so maybe he’ll be a little surprised, but give him some credit.” 

Johnny shook his head. “He’s not some high school chick, Manda. The upfront approach isn’t going to work. Not with him.” 

She pursed her lips. “Okay, maybe you’re right. I think I have an idea.” She made eye contact with the waitress and waved her over. “But first, you’re going to eat some vegetables.” 

He groaned, knowing that no matter how much he protested, he wasn’t going to leave the damn place without eating a salad. Still, she smiled at him across the table when he put the first forkful of green shit into his mouth and he thought that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. 

***

The plan was simple, but that didn’t mean that Johnny thought he could pull it off. It was like the sleeveless gi plan, but harder. This time he actually had to follow through – he couldn’t just say some asshole comment and then dash to his car like a pussy. 

Amanda told him that it was _go big or go home_ , and going home meant probably never having a shot at getting into Daniel’s pants, or his heart, whichever one he cared most for. He didn’t tell her which one, but the joke itself was enough to make his ears hot. Still, as usual, it was nice to be teased by her, especially when she touched her foot to his ankle under the table. 

He was wearing his sleeveless gi again, purposefully washed in Amanda’s washing machine so it smelled like their detergent, which he thought was so devious it might border on violating the Geneva Convention. 

He found Daniel inside, by the sink, in joggers and a sleeveless shirt, which only emphasized how slight he still was. Daniel caught Johnny’s gaze when he walked in, eyes lingering on his bare arms, on the open front of his gi. He scoffed and looked away, back to whatever he was doing in the sink. Johnny sidled up to him, as if whatever was going on in the sink was incredibly important. 

Daniel was just washing a stupid cup, hands covered in soap, but he kept stuttering over whatever he was supposed to be washing off, eyes jumping over to Johnny the closer he got. Like he was worried about what he would do. 

“You know we have training in like…ten minutes,” Johnny finally said, leaning against the counter, angled so if he leaned over to the right, he could completely block Daniel’s view of his stupid little cup. 

“I’m just finishing the dishes,” Daniel muttered, letting the cup fill up with water and then emptying it. “You can go start the stretching, if you’re so anxious to get started.” 

Johnny shrugged, leaning farther back onto the counter so he was resting on his elbow. He didn’t move. Daniel tore his eyes away and went back to the cup, cleaned and rinsed and rinsed again, because clearly he had no idea what to do now. Johnny watched his fingers hesitate, trying to decide if he should put the cup away or keep washing it. 

“You already washed it,” he said softly, and Daniel’s eyes jumped over to him, wider than usual and a little frightened. “Am I making you nervous, LaRusso?” 

He snorted. “I’m not scared of you, Johnny.” 

“I didn’t say you were,” Johnny said, tilting his head to catch Daniel’s gaze when he tried to avert it. “I asked if I made you nervous.” 

He let his other hand land on top of Daniel’s wrist, gentle but purposeful, and was rewarded by a breath that could have been a gasp or a sigh. He managed to curl his fingers around the narrow wrist before Daniel yanked it back, reaching for the dishtowel hanging on the edge of the sink. 

“What the hell are you doing?” he hissed. Johnny lifted his eyebrows in surprise – Amanda certainly hadn’t predicted this reaction. He stood up straight, taking in Daniel’s tense posture. Yeah, he was going to pop a blood vessel and drive off a cliff, alright. 

“Okay, LaRusso,” he said, taking a step back. “We’ll do it your way.” 

“What the fuck does that mean?” he asked, and Johnny gave him an enigmatic shrug before going out into the yard, where the kids were already stretching. He watched them without really seeing, trying to think of the things Amanda told him to do. _Don’t be too mean, don’t push him too far, don’t tease him too much._ Except the soft approach clearly wasn’t working. Maybe that’s what worked for her, but it definitely wasn’t going to work for him. 

So, he supposed, it was time to improvise.

Daniel met him at the platform, looking out of place standing next to Johnny in his gi, and Johnny kept his eyes on the kids. Instruction was short – they would be sparring today, and he was going to pair them up according to skill, so no one was terribly outmatched. 

And that was how he and Daniel ended up standing on the edges of the yard, watching Sam and Hawk spar. 

He could see Daniel going tense every time Hawk went near his precious karate protégé, but he knew that Sam was going to come out on top. She always did. There wasn’t any surprise in it. He could feel Daniel glancing over at him every now and then, like he was waiting for Johnny to say something, but he held out until the last point. 

“I bet you she lets him swing first, grabs that arm, and puts an elbow in his chest,” he said, right into Daniel’s ear. Daniel shivered, and took a hesitant step to the side, away from him. Johnny watched him go, disappointment blooming in his chest. And then he stepped back toward him and leaned into Johnny’s shoulder. 

“Bet it ends on a kick,” he said. 

“What do I get if I win?” Johnny asked, and Daniel looked up at him at the sound of his voice, something like recognition shining there and Johnny thought _finally. Finally we’re getting somewhere._

“Bragging rights,” Daniel said back, but he wasn’t leaning into Johnny’s shoulder anymore. He was looking up at him, open and blatant and Johnny had to tear his eyes away to watch the last point land. 

A kick, just like Daniel predicted. 

“What do I get?” Daniel asked, a hint of smugness to his voice as Miguel and Sam squared off. 

“What do you want?” he asked, taking great care to lean in, his voice just low enough that Daniel had to cant in his direction to understand him, and his skin erupted into goosebumps, and when Johnny pulled back, Daniel was looking straight ahead, gaze empty, like he was lost in thought. “I’m a good sport,” he said, and he heard Daniel laugh, quiet and under his breath, but the back of his neck was red. 

It didn’t take a genius to see what would happen when the students were finished sparring. In fact, Johnny liked to think he was smart enough to have predicted it. 

“Sensei Lawrence, why don’t you and Mr. L spar?” Hawk asked when the kids were taking their last water break. 

“Because I said we were sparring our equals, Hawk,” Johnny quipped, and the teenagers did their little _ooooooohhh_ thing that they did when they noticed a gauntlet being thrown down. He watched Daniel, who was picking up a piece of trash in the grass, straighten up, his shoulders tight. “But I can make an exception for LaRusso, as long as he’s okay with it.” 

“Wouldn’t want you to throw your back out, old man,” Daniel replied dryly, and now the kids were really into it, looking back and forth like they were watching a tennis match. 

“Who, exactly, is going to throw my back out, LaRusso? You’re like, 90 pounds, soaking wet.” 

“Clever,” Daniel replied. 

“It’s okay to admit you’re scared,” Johnny goaded, and Daniel’s eyes met his, a sly smile on his face. It lit a fire under Johnny’s skin, that smile. He’d seen it a thousand times, and he almost always got hit in the face as payment. Still, the pain was worth it. 

Daniel tossed the trash in Demetri’s direction, and Sam picked it up when he missed it. “Fine,” he said. “You want to do this? Let’s go.” 

“Alright, alright, no broken bones, no illegal kicks, and no sweeping the leg,” Miguel pulled them together like they were boxers, by their closed fists, and Johnny could recognize the fight movie reference he was doing. He rolled his eyes at him but gave Daniel a nod that he hoped communicated that he _really_ wasn’t about to wreck his knee a second time. “Face me, bow,” Miguel continued, and Johnny laughed and gave him the finger. “Face each other, bow.” 

They actually bowed this time, low and respectful, and something about it made Johnny feel a little giddy, like he’d finally been recognized as LaRusso’s equal. 

And then LaRusso was on him, and he was faster than Johnny remembered, so he took the first point in only a few seconds, backing up to his original place when Hawk called it. 

Johnny found his eyes and held them, and when they moved forward again, it was easy to keep his eyes on Daniel and let his muscles and instinct do the rest. It was a flurry of blocks and dodges, the pulled punches sailing by without any real venom, but when he stepped back to reassess, he saw that Daniel was smiling, like he was happy, and Johnny smiled back at him. 

Johnny won that point, if only because his smile seemed to knock LaRusso off-kilter long enough for him to land a punch to his side. 

“What’s the matter, LaRusso?” he asked when he was in his space, close enough to see the sweat beading on his forehead. “Am I distracting you?” 

He was surprised when Daniel held his gaze and said “Yeah, Johnny, you are.” 

So he kept doing it. It was an easy tactic, one Amanda couldn’t have taught him because she just didn’t know karate. Simple things, like getting into Daniel’s space before shoving him back instead of hitting him to make the point last longer, getting into his space when he threw a punch just to block and hold him for a second, long enough that Daniel pulled himself free instead of being pushed away. 

By the time the last point landed, Johnny had lost track, and he and Daniel were both breathing heavily, hair plastered to their foreheads, and Daniel was looking at him with a question in his eyes, and a thoughtful wrinkle in his brow. 

Johnny bowed one more time and dismissed the class, moving easily back toward the house to get his water and take a breather. 

When Daniel followed, he wasn’t exactly surprised. The kids were pulling out of the drive, and Johnny watched the tail lights from the window, feeling like something snuck into the air now that there was nothing but silence. 

When he turned around from the window, Daniel was leaning against the kitchen island, patting the back of his neck with a towel, watching him carefully. 

“Why do you smell like my laundry detergent?” he asked when Johnny didn’t say anything. 

Johnny laughed. “So you noticed?” 

“It’s a little weird when you realize someone else smells like your laundry,” Daniel pointed out. “Why?” 

“Manda told me to –”

“ _Manda_?” Daniel asked incredulously. “You have a nickname for her now?” 

Johnny smirked. “Want me to call you Danny? Would that make you feel better?” 

“Absolutely not,” Daniel said, so firmly that Johnny actually believed him. “You don’t even call me by my _actual name_ , I don’t think we’re at a nickname yet.” 

“Yet,” Johnny said thoughtfully, moving closer, close enough that Daniel’s hand on the back of his neck went still, like he couldn’t watch Johnny and do anything else at the same time. “Do you _want_ me to call you by your _actual name_?” he tried to mimic Daniel’s accent, but succeeded in doing nothing but startling a laugh out of him. 

“Try it,” Daniel said, pulling the towel off his neck and dropping it on the counter. 

Johnny raised his eyebrows at him. Daniel was watching him closely, mapping the movements of his hands, of his face. He was looking for something, some kind of right answer, but Johnny didn’t know what it was. He stepped closer, farther into his space, and watched Daniel tilt his head up to see his face more completely. 

“Daniel,” he said, trying to turn the word into something more like a purr. He didn’t like it, really, forcing the tone, and Daniel smirked up at him, leaning back on his hands. He looked more at ease than he had in days, and Johnny wondered if, somehow, he managed to do the right thing without realizing he was doing it. 

“Say it again,” Daniel said. 

“Daniel,” he leaned in, turning it into a whisper, delivered more into Daniel’s neck than his ear, because he could see his pulse thumping there, and the movement fascinated him. “Daniel, Daniel, Daniel –”

Daniel lunged, easily pushing Johnny back to the other side of the kitchen, to the counter, and pulled him down for a kiss, hungry and angry and a little too rough. Johnny took his face in his hands and tried to ease him down, but Daniel just knocked his hands out of the way and held him in place by his hips. 

Johnny pulled back to look him in the face, fighting a grin when Daniel’s eyes stayed closed. He could feel Daniel’s fingers pressing painfully into the skin of his hips, but he couldn’t remember when they’d managed to sneak under his shirt. 

“You wanna lead, huh?” he asked, and winced when Daniel squeezed even harder at his tone. 

Daniel loosened his grip at the look on his face. “Sorry,” he said. 

“’s okay,” he murmured. “I can take it.” 

Daniel’s gaze softened, and he pulled him back in for another kiss, this one much softer than the one before. Johnny, true to his word, went along for the ride, carefully sliding his hands around Daniel’s waist when a tentative touch didn’t get his hands smacked away again. He let Daniel untie the front of his gi, and didn’t even laugh when he made an annoyed sound when the material fell open. 

“I’m going to take you to dinner,” he said when Daniel was distracted enough by his bare torso that he figured now was as good a time as any. 

“You’re huh?” 

“Dinner,” Johnny said firmly. “Maybe even Golf n Stuff, if you’re good.” 

He rolled his eyes. “What about Amanda?” he asked, and Johnny shrugged, and he looked confused, like he couldn’t figure out when the bait and switch happened. “She can come,” Johnny said amiably. “If that’s what she wants.” 

Daniel ducked his head, just barely pressing it to Johnny’s shoulder before straightening up. “I might have…vetoed you for her already,” he said, and Johnny smirked at him, feeling momentarily vindicated. 

“That jealous, huh?” he asked thoughtfully, ignoring Daniel’s light punch to his arm. “I told you, LaRusso, I wouldn’t fuck around with your wife behind your back.” He tightened his hold on Daniel’s waist and held him still. “Not without everyone’s permission.” 

“Greedy,” Daniel admonished him, but he was blushing again, his bottom lip between his teeth. 

“Yes,” Johnny agreed readily. “Yes, I am.”


End file.
